Mitchell A. Skurzewski
Reporter

An organic and healthy goods store will soon be expanding in Merrill.
Golden Harvest Market will bring a cheese shop, fresh bakery, a made-from-scratch deli, stone-oven pizzas and more to a community yearning for new food options, according to city administrator Dave Johnson.
“This will bring a food venue we haven’t seen before,” Johnson said.” The city is excited as we’ve been working on this for a couple of years. It’s a destination store. People make a trip for that store. That is what is most important about it.”
Golden Harvest does have a small shop in Merrill now, but the new Golden Harvest building will be something totally different. The new building is planned to span 16,960 square feet, and will be similar to the setup Golden Harvest has in Rhinelander.
The new Golden Harvest Market will be located on the former Whispering Pines Trailer Park lot, on 2.5 acres of the 6.5 acres the city purchased.
Johnson said one thing exciting about the opportunity, is that Golden Harvest could bring other businesses to town, to go on the other four acres the city bought at the location. Golden Harvest is slated to break ground later this month and the project is slated to be complete by the end of 2019.
Golden Harvest’s bakery makes homemade bread and buns, pies, cookies, bars and more. The store will also offer a broad range of grocery items from spices, trail mixes and dried fruits sold in bulk, to frozen foods, dairy and dairy-free foods,  gluten-free foods, canned goods, paper goods and cleaning products.
“It’s a food alternative that is totally unique to Merrill,” Johnson said. “People now travel quite a distance to go to Rhinelander from Wausau. We can pick up some people that can come here, that wouldn’t normally travel that far to Rhinelander.”
The Merrill location will feature outdoor and indoor seating and outdoor garden merchandise like in Rhinelander.  The Golden Harvest project will also bring new jobs to the community.
According to Johnson, estimations are Golden Harvest will provide a combined 50, new full and part-time jobs. The Golden Harvest building will have some excess space at the back of the store, offering  potential for a future addition.
“Anything we have that can bring people into the city, to either live or visit here, we want to bring it here,” Johnson said. “We want to grow if we can and bring people that want to spend money. Any time a new business comes to town, opens a new opportunity for jobs.
Attempts to reach Golden Harvest Market owners Tim and Nikki Conjurske for comment were unsuccessful.